Learning to communicate in a second or additional language takes a long time and is one of the most challenging tasks your learners are likely to undertake. For this reason, an important part of your teaching involves finding ways to keep your learners interested and motivated. You can do this by helping them to

  • Understand the language learning process
  • Develop realistic language learning expectations
  • Connect their language learning objectives with their broader interests and goals
  • See themselves as successful language learners

To keep your learners engaged, it’s also helpful to understand their motivations for learning the language. Much of the current understanding of the role of motivation in language learning is based on the work of Robert Gardner and Wallace Lambert in the early 1970’s. Gardner and Lambert identified and described two types of motivation:

  • Instrumental motivation: An instrumental motivation involves pragmatic or practical reasons for learning the language. Instrumental motivations are focused on defined goals or achievements, such as obtaining a specific type of job, qualifying for a salary bonus, being able to communicate while traveling, or being able to read resource materials in the language. Instrumental motivation is a key element in Malcolm Knowles’ articulation of the nature of adult learning (andragogy).
  • Integrative motivation: An integrative motivation involves personal reasons for learning the language. Integrative motivations are focused on understanding, relationship building, and personal development, such as understanding the culture and society of those who speak the language, developing relationships with individual speakers, or maintaining or building on family background and connections.

In the decades since Gardner and Lambert first published their work, a substantial body of further research on motivation has deepened understanding and presented alternate perspectives on what motivation is, how it operates, and how it is related to anxiety and self-efficacy. For an extensive summary, see G. Zareian and H. Jodaei, Motivation in Second Language Acquisition: A State of the Art Article (International J. Soc. Sci. & Education, Vol. 5 Issue 2, 2015).

The concepts of instrumental and integrative motivation can be helpful to you and your learners, as long as you recognize that learners’ motivations for learning the language you are teaching may be exclusively integrative, exclusively instrumental, or a combination of the two. As Josie Eileen Thacker notes,

It has been found that motivation is not constant through the lengthy process of mastering certain subjects but is associated with a dynamically changing and evolving mental process, characterized by constant (re)appraisal and balancing of the various internal and external influences that the individual is exposed to (Dörnyei and Skehan, 2003). Unlike personality and aptitude, motivation is not viewed as a static attribute but instead something that changes from day to day and even lesson to lesson (Dörnyei, 2006). This creates a complex dynamic that makes motivation difficult to capture.

J. E. Thacker, The Effect of Language Learning Experience on Motivation and Anxiety of Foreign Language Learning Students (BYU Scholars Archive, 2020)

If you take the time to explore your learners’ motivations, you will be better able to help them set learning goals that are both realistic and appropriate, and update those goals as the language learning process proceeds.

Finally, be aware that learners’ motivation can be sidelined by language anxiety. Concern about making mistakes or appearing incompetent can inhibit both a learner’s ability to practice using the language and the skill development that takes place when the learner does. You can support your learners in managing their anxiety with these techniques:

  • Acknowledge that anxiety is real and that feelings of anxiety are legitimate. Telling your learners that they should not feel anxious only denies the negative emotions that can derail learning, without actually addressing them.
  • Let the class discuss language anxiety as a group. Knowing that others have similar negative feelings, and sharing strategies that they have used to manage them, will help to establish a safe environment for taking risks with the new language.
  • Guide learners into focusing on what they are doing right as they carry out learning activities, rather than what mistakes they are making. One way to do this is to have each learner provide a “ticket out” at the end of each class, making a brief oral or written statement of “one thing I did well today.” (This can work for classroom behaviors, too.)
  • Allow time for practice with a partner or small group before a presentation or other oral communication task in front of a large group. Speaking is the skill that elicits the highest levels of anxiety for many learners.
  • Avoid interrupting when learners are engaged in communicative tasks. Error correction can wait until after the learner has finished and you have commented on what was done well.

Resources on Learner Motivation

Al-Hoorie, Ali H., & Al Shlowiy, Ahmed S. (2020). Vision Theory vs. Goal-Setting Theory: A Critical Analysis. Porta Linguarum 33: 217-229.

Dörnyei, Z. (2003). Attitudes, orientations, and motivations in language learning: Advances in theory, research, and applications. Language Learning, 53(S1), 3–32.

Dörnyei, Zoltán. (2014). Motivation in second language learning. In M. Celce-Murcia, D. M. Brinton, and M. A. Snow, Eds., Teaching English as a second or foreign language. (4th ed.). National Geographic Learning (Cengage).

Dörnyei, Z., & Ushioda, E. (2013). Teaching and researching motivation. (2nd ed.). Routledge.

Gardner, Robert C., & Lambert, Wallace E. Attitudes and motivation in second language learning. Newbury House, 1972.

Horwitz, Elaine. Motivation. Lesson 2 in Foreign language teaching methods: The language learner. Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning (COERLL).

Omaggio Hadley, Alice. (2001). On learning a language: Some theoretical perspectives. Chapter 2 in A. Omaggio Hadley, Teaching language in context (3rd ed.). Heinle.